Hope
by Holly The Future Author
Summary: Katara didn't make it during the comet, and it's affecting everybody - especially Aang. Will the gaang be able to move on without her? Or will they need someone else to take her place?


Azula strikes Katara with lightning after all, and unfortunately passes. Zuko's addrenaline rushes and defeats her all by himself. Everyone is practically depressed, even a year later, about her loss.

Zuko becomes fire lord still. Deep down he misses having small arguments with her, having her always keep everyone together in the hardest times. He is drowning in guilt that he wasn't there to save her, and thinks it's his fault that she was dead. And the fact that the friendly relationship he had with the avatar has now been emptied and filled with hate, rage, and hurt, does not help.

Toph is back with her parents at Ba Sing Se. When they give her a hard time, she immediatly thinks out of almost impulse that Katara would be there to comfort her. She would desperately go to another member of the gaang, but it just wasn't the same without her. The only close friend she considered a big sister to her will never be there for her now.

Sokka is suffering depression. The fun loving sarcastic boomerang meat guy left with her. He's sinking so low he's almost losing his mind. The people of Ba Sing Se had to take away all of his weapons so he could not be dangerous to himself or other people. He lives with his father who is desperately trying to keep him as sane as possible. It is hard since he feels the same way.

Aang doesn't believe in love anymore, and lives alone in Ba Sing Se. He almost lives like a hermit crab. His emotions left with Katara as well, and thinks he'll never get it back. Everytime someone tries to help him, he is incredibly rude and stubborn. He only lives to dream of his lost love.

***

Chapter 1  
Aang lies on his usual small green couch in the corner of his small house in the outskirts of Ba Sing Se, staring at the usual ceiling. It was very dark and secluded in the room, so he was staring at darkness above him.

His house was almost never exposed to sunlight anymore, unless when a visitor comes by and complains about it, he will sulkingly open the curtain on the only small window he has. The only furniture is a couch and two chairs shoved in a corner. The only area of the house that was close to a kitchen was 2 counters and a cupboard, with a small wooden table and chairs right next to it. It probably has an inch of dust on it by now, the only furniture thats ever occupied is his couch. The only other room in the house is Aang's bedroom, which is only filled with a large bed and a dresser. His friends thought it was useless for him to have a dresser since all of his clothes just get thrown around the floor anyway.

People didn't know what he was thinking when he got this house, when he could've gotten the biggest palace in the world if he wanted to.  
"This was the life of a poor person, and not just poor in money," some people would say on the streets of Ba Sing Se. The citizens of the city didn't have any idea what the avatar was really thinking these days.

He was thinking about his lost love, of course. Only his close friends knew thats all he thought about now, since he claimed anything else in the world wasn't worth mentioning of now that she's not around. Yet, he hated when anyone even implied Katara. You couldn't talk to him about anything.

He was imagining her face, and at the time he thought no girl could beat the face of Katara. He totally convinced himself that it was the perfect face. He went over every curve. . . every color. . . every texture. . . every -

_Knock knock knock_

He sighed loudly, this was the worst time to be interrupted for him. He didn't want to see anyone, and he thought he made sure that was clear  
"What!" he yelled loud enough so the person on the other side of the door could hear him. He didn't even think about getting up and answering the door.

The door creeked opened, and sunlight burst into the room and stinged Aang's unadjusted eyes.

"It's me," a faint voice said.

Aang's former earthbending teacher and currect best friend Toph Bei Fong walked into the cold dark room. She shivered as her body noticed before she did that the temperature dropped a few degrees as she set foot in the room.

"What, did your parents go too nice on you again? I keep telling you that at least you live with someone! Why do you keep complaining about how horrible your life is?" He shot up out of his couch and stared at her with his eyes coming into focus. All he could see was her shadow, he couldn't tell Toph's expression on her face.

"That's not it," she almost whispered.

Aang never heard her talk like that before. She used to always be so strong and tough, maybe that was one of the things she lost from her too.  
"Do you wanna. . . t-take a walk with me?"

He felt her hezitant vibrations and knew this was different. He hasn't been outside to only walk for a while, and he did need the sunlight if he didn't want to become as pale as a ghost pretty soon.

He sighed, and stood up. "Sure," he said, letting go of his irritation of her entrance.

Toph turned around and laid her sightless eyes on him, just standing there.

"Aren't you coming?" he asked after he walked past her. He walked out of the room and left the door open for her to follow.

Toph frowned, and followed him out of the cold dark room.

For about 15 minutes, Toph and Aang walked around the large city of Ba Sing Se. Aang didn't notice that Toph was trying to speak up about why she really wanted to walk with him tonight. He was too busy watching people all around him simply living happy lives. Some would be little kids playing tag around the markets while their parents were having a good time visiting about whatever crossed their minds. Some would be teenagers pulling pranks on their brother, sister, or best friend and having a blast laughing about it. Some would be practicing earthbending with their fellow friends and family, building a bond that could last a lifetime. And some would be couples ranging from 12 to 120, trying to affection their love in different creative ways. This made Aang jealous, it was like someone was shoving this crap right in his face.

Toph finally brought up the topic that angered Aang the most. She was hezitant to bring it up once they came out of the door, but now was her last chance as they were already walking back. They were on an empty street behind all of the small earth kingdom houses. It looked almost intentionally deserted.

"Aang?"

He raised his eyebrows at her as a "what" face. He was surprised that she used his real name, and he already knew what she was going to say.  
Toph concluded by this time that there was no other way to word what she wanted to say, so she just bluntly said it after a long sigh of giving up.

"You need to move on."

Aang felt a rush of sadness take him over. He hated feeling this way, he thought he was pathetic to show it to people, especially after a year it happened. He didn't want people's help or advice, he thought only he could do that. These thoughts made him frustrated.

"Is this why you wanted me to go for a walk with you?" his eyes narrowed. "I told you so many times, no one can replace Katara. . ."

Katara's face reappeared in his mind. He tried to shake it off, but it was no use. Usually he would welcome her face in his mind with open arms, but only when he was alone. He did not want Toph seeing him like this. He convinced himself that everyone thought he was now totally fine.

"I don't think we deserve to be this miserable all the time," she began.

So she did think he was miserable. But it's just Toph, she can tell he was with his vibrations.

"She would want us to have a happy life again. She wouldn't dare see us like this. . ."

She walked so slow she eventually came to a complete stop. Her face cringed as she shut her eyes.

Aang looked at his former earthbending teacher, and best friend. Her eyes were watering, and she fought back tears.

"I miss her," Toph said shakily as she opened her sightless eyes again. Her hands balled up into fists as she fought the sadness that was showing on her face.

It killed him to see her like this. His frustration drained out of his mind. He just wanted to cry when he watched his best friend in this much pain.  
Almost without thinking, he reached his arms out, and hugged her.

He put his arms around her back, and his left hand rested over Toph's hair bun.

"I miss her too," he whispered in her ear. Toph normally doesn't hug anyone, so he was afraid she wouldn't take it, and push him out of the way.

But that was the old Toph, the Toph that he missed. Things were different now, and she was different.

She put her arms around his waist and quietly let out all of her pain as she put her head in his chest.

"All of our lives are falling apart. We're all losing it, Aang!" she whispered back.

"I know, Toph."

"Someone's gotta be out there. Katara can't be the only person that would keep us together.  
"And I know people have came to us and offered help, but those people weren't she same. None of them had the intentions of actually caring about us. . . I just felt pity in their hearts. . ."

Aang was lost in words. He looked up at the sky and noticed the sun was falling.

"You should get back home, I don't want your parents giving you a hard time tonight," he said to Toph concerningly.

"Is it evening already?" Since she was blind, she could barely tell the exact time according to the sun. She could only feel the strength of heat on her skin, and which side it was on on her body.

"Yeah. The sun's starting to come down."

". . . Okay. ." she said dissapointedly. Their arms let out of the hug as she said, "See 'ya Twinkletoes."

Relieved that she sounded like herself again, he said "Bye, Toph."

They both went seperate ways. Toph went towards the busy part of the city, and Aang continued to walk behind the small houses, since the one down the road was his.

He walked with his head down on the road. He had so many sad thoughts about the failing lives of his friends that he was totally oblivious to his surroundings.

Toph was all alone now that she didn't have her 'big sister' to help her out. She had to put up with her over caring parents every day. Why wasn't he there to help her out every time? Why did he have to be so rude to ignore her?

And why did he never visit Sokka to see how he was? He didn't live that far away, and he needed someone else to look after him besides his father. He was going through the same thing as he was. He needed help, too.

Why was he so hard on Zuko still? People make mistakes, he's made some himself. He should be mad at Azula, not Zuko, he doesn't deserve this kind of burden. Especially when he's trying to run the whole fire nation now.

Someone else was in the area near him, but he did not see her from all of these terrible thoughts he was having. It was qutie strange, because this person was being pretty loud.

This person had one of her favorite songs stuck in her head that she heard that morning. Since she thought she was the only one around her, she was having a ball just dancing and humming to herself.

She skidded to the middle of the road with her feet, and started banging her head to the loud and to some people almost annoying music that was playing in her head. She was dancing to what is called now a days "hard rock" or "metal".

"Daa, da duh duh duh, dummmmm," she kept skidding backwords on one foot going, "Dumm da dumm da da da dumm da dummm," etc. She was also not aware of her surroundings, and ran right into Aang on her last skid.

He caught himself before he fell by airbending back up to the ground.

He noticed the startled girl losing balance and tripping over his foot.

"Whoa!" she said under her breath.

He instinctively put his arms out and caught her before she fell.

The girl looked into the eyes of the person that caught her, and that person took her breath away. And Aang looked into hers, and almost lost his grip around her small figure.

She was so beautiful, and so. . . different. She had amazing straight brown hair that was swept to the side, creating many layers to shape her face. She had sparkling brown eyes. . . Brown? Aang has never seen brown eyes before.

She was about the height as Toph, and had a phenomenal body from what he could feel and see. She was very light weight for him, but yet didn't seem week at all. Something was surely different about her, he felt his heart sky rocket as she was in his arms.

"Uhm. . sorry," she said as she smiled. Her cheeks began to flush with red.

Aang's did the same, and smiled. For the first time in a year, he naturally smiled.

He brought her up. For the girl it seemed to slow and gently, and she was in his arms for so long. But in reality, it was only for about 7 seconds.

He could feel the girl's heart vibrations being the same as his: They sped up, yet slowed down at the same time. Their hearts almost seemed like they beat as one.

As he let her stand, his body almost melted as he saw her smile more.

"I'm Holly," she said as she held out a small hand in front of him. "You're the avatar, right?"

He nodded as he took her hand and shook it. It was so smooth and warm.

Holly. . . that name is so different, so unique, so. . . perfect

.  
Their hands went back to their side after a few seconds.

Some of her hair was falling down over her eyes, and Aang almost had to force his arm not to reach up and move it out of her eyes. But she noticed that it did and flicked her head to the side, and it fluffed back up to her forehead again. He thought it was so cute the way she did it.

"Well, you wanna. . . maybe hangout sometime?"

She didn't know what she was saying, she just met the guy! Last time she heard he still wasn't over his girlfriend's death! What the hell was she thinking? She cringed at the stupid question she just asked.

"Y-yeah!" he said, not noticing how loud he was, "Sure!"

That only made Holly grin wider, and she nodded. "Meet me here tomorrow first thing?" she asked in a giggling tone.

Maybe he feels the same way, maybe this could work.

"Yeah. . . yeah sure," he trailed off, not really knowing what to say other then yes.

"Alright. Well See you then."

As Holly passed him, Aang took in such an undescribable aroma that it sent a shiver up his spine, and a funny feeling in his stomach.  
He looked over his shoulder and gawked at how curved she was. She was only wearing the usual outfit of an earth citizen, but it looked so much better on her. It hugged every part of her body so perfectly, and the green colors seemed to have a glow to it. Maybe from the sun? He wasn't sure.

She finally took a left turn onto another road, but Aang's eyes were still fixed on where she just was.

Then he stood there, dumbstruck. Words couldn't even be put into his mind, just a now new face that he went over in his mind as a list, just like he did with Katara this morning.

Katara. . .

He was lost in thought about if this is really the time to move on as he continued to walk back to his house. He knew he had to eventually, but was he really ready for it? Is it already time to rebuilt his life again?

It was the time, and it was probably his only chance. He just experienced love at first sight today, he can't pass down an oppurtunity like this. He was tired of being too depressed to even go out. He was tired of never thinking that maybe his life isn't so bad, especially when their world is now at peace. He was tired of snapping at people, just because he was in pain, and he was desperate enough to fill it with rage.  
He was tired of suffering.

Tomorrow is a new day, and it could be the first day of a start of a new life with his new love. He knew it was love, and positive it wasn't lust. It was just like seeing Katara for the first time.

He was glad that she wasn't anything like Katara, he didn't need someone anything like her to remind him. She was someone totally new.  
What if she doesn't feel the same way? What if he makes a complete fool out of himself the next day because he gets his hopes up too quickly?  
He only saw Holly for about 60 seconds, and she already gave him hope. That thought made Aang excited for his new day tomorrow as he stepped into the threshold of his small house.


End file.
